Activity+10

=Activity 10: Use of Reflection =

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Reflection is a key element in building knowledge. Students must be given ample opportunity to reflect upon the coursework to form links between course content and real world experience. Gardner (as cited in Bye, Smith, & Rallis, 2009) defined reflection as "the ability to connect new information with personal meaning or past experiences" (p. 842). Education, which at one time emphasized the memorization of facts, has been developed into an entity for harnessing the ability to think critically. Through reflection students are learning core content material and applying it in unique and abstract methods.

Online course reflective activities serve as a method for students to learn as well as develop the community within the e-classroom. Salmon (2002) contrasted online and face-to-face reflections noting distinct differences in their characteristics and noting the necessity for designing online reflective opportunities, rather than assuming that they will happen through serendipity (p. 389). Salmon (2002) went on to discuss the special role that reflections play in forming community amongst learners. As students complete an activity and are asked to reflect upon what was learned, they are given an opportunity to build knowledge based upon their own experiences as well as the experiences of other learners because in many cases they have worked collaboratively with other students and may have access to other student's work or discussion board posts.

Effective reflective strategies developed for the traditional classroom can easily be transformed in to an online activity. Watson (2010) discussed the use of journaling as a reflective strategy in the traditional classroom. An instructor could require online journaling or utilize an asynchronous method for a collaborative journal assignment where students are reflecting upon their own understanding as well as others. Hourigan and Murray (2010) discussed the use of blogs to attain this method of reflective journaling and found success in the practice. McDonald and Dominguez (2009) discussed the importance of incorporating reflective thinking in to the reflective process rather than solely regurgitating information on a piece of paper. McDonald and Domingues (2009) defines reflective thinking as a "process of analyzing and making judgments about what has happened" (p. 46). This type of reflection can be applied to the analysis of case studies where students call upon the knowledge they have recently attained and applying it to a given scenario.

I feel that collaborative reflective activities can prove to be more effective than individual reflections. In the classroom, students are often exposed to information they are not familiar with. When working collaboratively, individuals often find more success in learning and understanding the information (Anita Ng Heung, 2009). By providing students opportunities to communicate with each other over the course material, actual learning will increase. The ability to utilize asynchronous and synchronous chat tools has allowed students to quickly and easily contribute to the body of knowledge. Many of the tools available are free and do not require in-depth technological skills to utilize. Such collaborative tools include Google Docs, Skype, and TodaysMeet.com.

In the online environment it is often difficult to achieve a high degree of effective participation in collaborative activities. It is important for the instructor to develop community within the e-classroom at the onset of the course. Providing the learners with a collaborative reflective activity as the first assignment may help develop the sense of importance for such activities. Students can be required to reflect upon a unit from a previous course or a situation they have encountered that may be relevant to one of the current course topics and then provide feedback on other students' posts. Another activity to model the need for effective responses would be to require students to respond with a minimum of five sentences. By setting specific requirements, students will clearly understand their responsibilities on the assignments. At the end of the course there could be an activity where learners reflect upon the responses from other students and discuss the impact they had on more fully building their knowledge base.

References

Anita Ng Heung, S. (2009). Success through collaboration: a community-based model for pre- service teachers. //International Journal of Education through Art//, 5(2/3), 187-200. doi:10.1386/eta.5.2and3.187/1

Bye, L., Smith, S., & Rallis, H. (2009). Reflection using an online discussion forum: Impact on student learning and satisfaction. //Social Work Education//, 28(8), 841-855. doi:10.1080/02615470802641322

McDonald, J., & Dominguez, L. (2009). Reflective writing. //Science Teacher//, 76(3), 46-49. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.

Salmon, G. (2002). Mirror, mirror, on my screen...Exploring online reflections. //British Journal of Educational Technology//, 33(4), 379-391. doi:10.1111/1467-8535.00275

Watson, D. (2010). Teaching teachers to think: Reflective journaling as a strategy to enhance students' understanding and practice of academic writing. //Journal of College Teaching & Learning//, 7(12), 11-18. Retrieved from EBSCO//host//.